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Speak of the Devil
The kid spoke of the devil and was killed. I didn't see it happen. I woke when grisly old Ferman was screaming for the guards. The warden came with the doctor and they found the kid dead. Doc said his neck was broke. That's how it always happened, right? Eighteen victims, counting the kid now. All with their necks broke. Why the kid? I told you why. He spoke of the devil. The kid said the devil was a circus freak who could escape any prison. The kid said the devil could squeeze himself right on through these iron bars. And the kid said he knew the devil's name. That's why he was killed. That very night. The warden asked who done it. Not me. I was locked in my cell on the end. It had to be Ferman himself or Bobby Brady who done it. They were on either side. They could have reached through the bars and grabbed him. Ferman said Big Bob done it. Bob swore to kill Ferman for telling such a dirty lie. The warden laughed because we were all gonna hang anyway. The only way out was through the graveyard. And you know what they did back then when a convict died in his cell on death row? They'd put him in a pine box and a shallow grave behind the prison and not say nothing. But this time the warden said leave the body where it was. See how you all like that. See you in the morning. And they locked us down again and put out the light. And that's when the devil took Brady. Ferman put a hand on the bottom of the lock of his cell door, and he looked at me and he smiled. A grisly, greasy devilish smile. The door swung wide. Ferman went to Brady's cell. Brady swore at him again. Yeah, c'mon, liar! Then Brady and Ferman were struggling in the dark. Brady's arms were through the cell bars and his hands were around Ferman's throat. Then skinny old Ferman got bigger and stronger and his eyes glowed red. Brady went up and his neck cracked and he fell backwards on the floor of his cell. And then the devil came for me. I waited. I watched. The devil shrunk and shriveled as he came closer in the dark. But he didn't take me right away. He went inside his own cell, next to mine, and the door clanged shut behind him. Then he smiled at me again, that same greasy smile. And he spoke kind of low and raspy. I'm getting out of here tonight, he said. Why don't you come with me, he said. Come closer. I'll show you how. I backed away. And then those eyes glowed red and he hissed at me. You will die! He grabbed the iron bars high up between our cells, and he climbed, and he pulled, and he was squeezing himself through above the crossbar. He strained and he stretched and he sweated and, ploosh!, his head was through. Shoulders were tight against the bars. He turned, and he angled, and he squeezed hard. I started to yell. That's when the devil fell. He slid down sudden and his neck caught the crossbar and he jerked and twitched and went still. He just dangled there, toes on the floor. The guards came again, they called for the warden and the doctor. I was shivering on the floor. And now there were three dead bodies, each in its own locked cell. Brady's neck was broke, the doctor said, and so was Ferman's. So I was the devil, they said! Me! Somehow I got out of my cell and I killed them. The warden said strip me down and search for a tool. They checked the lock on my cell door and they searched my mattress and all my clothes. They stripped me naked but they found nothing 'cause it wasn't me. That's what I was saying but they didn't believe. The warden said take the bodies to the deadhouse and move me to another cell. They put me in Ferman's cell! They left a guard to watch and I pretended to sleep. I kept thinking maybe the devil is only a man. Maybe he didn't ever get big and maybe his eyes never glowed and maybe I was crazy. If he was just a man then someone fixed the lock on his cell so he could open it. But that wouldn't get him past the walls. So maybe there'd be a diversion that night. Maybe someone was gonna set a fire, or a bomb would blow a hole. After an hour another guard came, and they looked at me, lying still, and they left together and I was alone. I got up and I curled my blanket and all my clothes and Ferman's stuff and a pillow so it looked like someone was there, and I checked the lock on the cell door. Yeah, there was a hole cut in the bottom just like I figured. I poked with a finger and the locked clicked open. I went to the cell-block door. It was quiet and nobody was around. The door to the deadhouse was open, below the gallows. I ran to the deadhouse and went inside. It was dark but I could see two bodies lying there, and tools and the wood where the guards had been makin' pine boxes. One pine box -- it would have been big Brady's 'cause he was to hang soonest -- was already built and laying there. And that's when it hit me. The only way out was through the graveyard! Sure! If I hid myself in that pine box they'd take me on out past the walls. The lid was on but it wasn't nailed shut. Inside was Ferman's body. I climbed in on top of him and I pulled the lid over, and I tried to squeeze in tight so the lid would lie flat. Then I felt it. Something moved! He was breathing! The devil's eyes opened and glowed red. He hissed! You will die! I threw off the lid and I started to scream. I screamed and I screamed and devil just lay there beneath me with his eyes glowing red. The guards who dragged me away said I was still screaming it's alive! it's alive!, when they put me in chains and a straight jacket. And so they buried Ferman and the others in shallow graves beyond the wall. They didn't know it, of course, but they buried Ferman alive. Me, you know already. I was tried again, for all the murders done by the devil, and I was declared insane. That's better than a hanging, don't you think? But one key witness was missing from my trial. The prison doctor was never seen or heard from again. I could have told them where to look. I could have told them what I figured, but I didn't. Why should I? I would hang if I told them that the doctor dug up the devil from his grave and set him free. I figured the doctor's own neck was broken then, just like the kid's, and he was buried right there in that same pine box. Because, you see, the devil never leaves a breathing witness. He'll come for me now, 'cause I know his name. And 'cause I've told you all of this, he'll come for you, too.